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Rest in peace, sweet little pup

The image beside is not the sweet little pup in question. I don’t believe I actually have any pictures of him. This image is Ben, possibly a distant cousin, who bears a strong enough resemblance to be a stand-in.

The sweet little thing was not my own dog, but rather my neighbour’s. He died last night. Mostly of neglect, but specifically of some unknown illness.

He was a darling, sweet, bright, affectionate, playful little thing always. No matter how they yelled at him, or anything they did he just wanted to play.

He was rarely brought enough to eat or drink except what myself and another neighbour gave him out of pity. Still he only ever wanted to play and have his muzzle & ears scratched and his head petted. Love and play were about the only words in his whole soul.

Unfortunately we all assumed he was better off in bad care than in the local shelter. We live in a county with one of the highest kill rates in the entire country (for my foreign readers, there are things barbarisms, such as the US, wherein animal shelters will simply euthanise an animal because (s)he has been there for a week). And animal rescue is, technically, illegal in Georgia.

Yes, you read that right. Wildlife rescue not so much. Strays? Legally you’re required to take them to the aforementioned shelter or, by preference, call animal control to do it; though this one isn’t much enforced. And finally pets — you cannot rescue them. It carries a heavy fine and a prison sentence even if the animal is indisputably being abused! There was a big case about that when someone tried to rescue an animal being mistreated by a neighbour; you may only call animal control, the officers of which, due to the high kill rate, will frequently just give warnings over and over again rather than take the animal (and others on power trips who will take the animal on the smallest provocation, ah the US government at work)

No he was not beaten … well, not often that we know of — she’d have actually had to get close enough to touch the dog for that, something she was clearly loathe to do and vehemently discouraged the children living in the home to do. Yes, she got a dog and then kept it, when tiny, at arms’ length, then as a bigger puppy (knee high at the top of his head) at brooms’ length. He wasn’t starved, exactly. Regardless, he became quite sick. This happens when you consider a dog spoilt who will not drink that has, in her own words, got “nasty”, and fed nothing but bread and old milk for days at a time.

Yes, she expected the dog to drink unclean water. She wouldn’t water him if it’d been raining — assuming he could just drink the rain water (frankly, a likely healthier choice than the local tap water … and her was rather eager to lap the stuff out of his fur, and the puddles) and fed him things that held no significant nutrition for a human, let alone a carnivore.

What was it? Worms maybe, though if so not one of the kinds that leaves the dog bloated; he was skin and bones. Maybe some stomach bug he caught from his poor conditions. Maybe it was parvo.

He died, mostly, alone. He became ill a bit over three days ago — I heard him throwing up one night while I was out playing with my own sweet little pup. I didn’t see him again for two days after. Silly me, I assumed he was inside or at a vet or something. Sorry, sometimes I have delusions. No, he’d just curled up in his dog house and not moved for two days. In that time there hadn’t been a single sign of water or food — enhancing the illusion he wasn’t outside those days.

Yesterday afternoon I was informed that today “the dog people” would be coming to get him because he’s sick and she can’t afford to get him treated. No sadness, she didn’t even look at the dog who — despite being skin and bone, and too exhausted to flick his ear to dislodge a swarm of flies that’d landed there — had stood up to greet her with all the excitement his little body could manage … which was pretty much the standing and looking expectant. His heart broke when she just went back inside. So did mine.

Last night he laid down beside our shared fence near a spot where he and my pup would often play and died looking toward our yard. His person out front oblivious. Sadly in the dark he’d been invisible until my little pup noticed something wrong. The little nose that can smell that it’s Thursday, thirty-three minutes past eight AM, and the Prime Minister of England had poached eggs and toast with marmalade today I guess … well, he suddenly became frantic about getting to his buddy and then hesitant to go near.

Now I regret never having called animal control on her. If I had well, that little puppy very likely still wouldn’t be alive today, but at the same time … he’d have died more quickly and humanely (for all it’s faults, at least this shelter doesn’t do gas chambers or other such horrific Auschwitz-esque things). I can’t honestly believe that his person will miss him, but he will be missed; by myself and some of his neighbours.

It’s at times like these when I pray that there are such things as Karma, Hell, Tartarus, or Nifelheim. Simply because one has to believe that some justice will be served because the legal system certainly won’t be lifting a finger to serve it.

I’m going to set aside the portion of what I earn from Love or Lust sales today and tomorrow and donate them to the ASPCA.

Might I recommend, those of you who already have bought the book or don’t plan to (or simply can’t today or tomorrow), consider dropping over there and making a donation, or if not to them, perhaps to your local animal rescue charity.

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I would not worship a God who is homophobic and that is how deeply I feel about this. I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven. No, I would say sorry, I mean I would much rather go to the other place. I am as passionate about this campaign as I ever was about apartheid. For me, it is at the same level.

~~ Archbishop Desmond Tutu

J. R. R. Tolkien in his introduction to the second edition of The Lord of the Rings:
“Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible, and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works, or of the kinds of writing that they evidently prefer.”

"Write what you know will always be excellent advice for those who ought not to write at all. Write what you think, what you imagine, what you suspect!"

~~ Gore Vidal

“There is such a place as fairyland - but only children can find the way to it. And they do not know that it is fairyland until they have grown so old that they forget the way. One bitter day, when they seek it and cannot find it, they realize what they have lost; and that is the tragedy of life. On that day the gates of Eden are shut behind them and the age of gold is over. Henceforth they must dwell in the common light of common day. Only a few, who remain children at heart, can ever find that fair, lost path again; and blessed are they above mortals. They, and only they, can bring us tidings from that dear country where we once sojourned and from which we must evermore be exiles. The world calls them its singers and poets and artists and story-tellers; but they are just people who have never forgotten the way to fairyland.”

― L.M. Montgomery, The Story Girl

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